word usage - Nominalizing adjectives regarding nationalities


When we talk about nationalities, "Americans" and "the Americans(or the American people)" are two ways of saying the same thing with the latter having a collective sense. The same is true for "Italians" vs. "the Italians(or the Italian people)", "French people" vs. "the French(or the French people)", "Japanese people" vs. "the Japanese(or the Japanese people), etc. Is it perfectly fine to say "the American (as a plural)" to mean the same as "the Americans or the American people"; "the Italian (as a plural)" instead of "the Italians or the Italian people" to refer to them as the nation as a whole?




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